Vietnamese hang up on local phones

Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) - Vietnamese mobile phone brands have been displaced from the market by high-quality foreign products and low-priced Chinese ones.

In the last few years, Mobiistar and Q-Mobile were considered the strongest Vietnamese brands and achieved good growth.

Q-Mobile, at its peak in 2009-2010, was much loved for its design and functions and its sales was third only behind Nokia and Samsung.

In 2014, Mobiistar was among the top five in sales at the FPT Retail Store along with Nokia, Samsung, Apple and Oppo.

Mobile service providers like VinaPhone and Viettel have also launched their own smart phones to promote their 3G services.

Technology companies like FPT and BKAV have also invested in the manufacture of mobile phones.

"Vietnamese mobile phone brands are popular," Doan Van Hieu Em, head of telecom division of phone retailer group The Gioi Di Dong told Sai Gon Tiep thi (Sai Gon Marketing) newspaper.

But they face intense competition from popular international brands like Apple, Samsung, Nokia/Microsoft Mobile and emerging ones like Asus and Oppo.

And they cannot compete with the international brands in terms of advertising, marketing, public relations and promotional campaigns since they lack the latter's resources.

In 2009-2011 a series of Vietnamese budget mobile phones appeared in the market.

According to market research companies, their main advantage was the low price.

But not long afterwards, international manufacturers like Nokia and Samsung launched products at medium to low price - of under 3 million VND (150 USD) - in addition to feature phones and two-sim ones to take on their local rivals.

As a result, many Vietnamese brands like Hi-Mobile, Avio, Malate, BluePhone stopped operations around 2012 and disppeared off the shelves of major retailers such as The Gioi Di Dong, FPT Shop and Vien Thong A.

Only a few like Q-Mobile (now known as Q), Mobiistar and FPT Phone have survived.

"International companies' business strategy of focusing on mid-range and cheap product knocked out Vietnamese brands," Em added.

At the same time, Chinese budget phones and no-name ones available at ridiculously low prices have taken over the low-priced market segment from local brands.

Ngo Nguyen Kha, CEO of Mobiistar, told the English-language Vietnam News daily that his company has survived thanks to its strategy of having a large range of products at various price ranges.

"We make not only cheap phones but also mid-range products," he said.-VNA